News feminist philosophers can use

The Sunday cat helps humans get their priorities straight

So there you are, you and a husband with a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan and

1. A baby soon to arrive

2. A need for two studios, since both of you are artists

3. A bengal cat

4. A large closet.

Here’s the solution: the baby gets the closet, the cat gets the second bedroom and you find studios somewhere else. If you have a problem with that, then you haven’t dealt with a bengal cat who was there first!.

While many accidental sellers are forced into the market for job-related reasons, others are led afoul by the stork.

“Right now, we might put the baby in the closet,” said Elizabeth Demaray, 41, of the compromise she and her husband, Hugo Bastidas, 51, may be forced to make when their first child arrives next month. …

Last year, Ms. Demaray, a sculptor and assistant art professor, and Mr. Bastidas, a painter and art professor, moved to East 116th Street near Lenox Avenue, to a two-bedroom condominium that he also uses as an art studio.

But the 1,200-square-foot space is not big enough for the couple, his canvases, a baby and an exceptionally vocal Bengal cat that must be sequestered in its own bedroom at night if the humans are to sleep…

“If we wind up staying, we’re going to have to find a studio space for both of us, probably somewhere toward Lower Manhattan or possibly Jersey City,” Ms. Demaray said. “But the cat won’t work in the closet.”